Thunderclap – the social media flashmob!

As part of my summer internship here at the WSI I am promoting Web Science in all shapes and forms.

Part of that involves promoting our MOOC (Web Science) and I am also helping to promote Dr Lisa Harris’ brand new MOOC in Digital Marketing.

I have been investigating the concept of a Thunderclap. A Thunderclap is… if you can imagine it… a flashmob on social media. It is a way of putting across a message to as many people as possible using social media.

There are three key elements to a Thunderclap. The first one is creating a message. Making it catchy is very important. Also using #tags is also very useful.

The second is deciding on the timing. When do you want the message to go out? What time of day will potentially give you a maximum social reach?

The final one is a goal. You need to set a target number of supporters. If you don’t reach that target, the message won’t be sent. It doesn’t matter if you go over, you just need to make sure that you reach that target!

Just to clarify what is meant by “supporters”. These are people who support the idea behind your message, and therefore are prepared to link their Twitter/Facebook/Tumblr account to it (or a combination of the three).

Assuming that you reach your goal, on the date and time that you have set, the message will be automatically posted to whichever social media your supporters have connected to it. The idea being that all of your supporters’ followers/friends will be able to see that message. This translates into having a “social reach” which is equal to the sum of all of your supporters’ followers/friends.

The idea of a Thunderclap was first brought to my attention by the Students Union here at Southampton University. They used it to promote their campaign for better housing during the 2013-2014 academic year, and as far as I can remember they achieved a social reach of over 50,000 people. As it turns out, even the White House have used it!

Now comes the part where I get down on my hands and knees and beg you to support it! Alas, if only I were capable of doing just that! We need at least 250 supporters by 8th September to get this thing off the ground. Please please support it and help us to promote our MOOCs!

Supporting takes just a few seconds. There is no financial implication in supporting it, we just need you to give Thunderclap permission to post our message to social media on your behalf on 8th september!